


Some Kind of Family

by Stariceling



Category: Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Adopted Siblings, Backstory, Childhood, Gen, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-19 14:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3613356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For as long as Rin could remember, Sunny had been her only family. Even when they become part of a larger family together, the last thing she wants is to lose her brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Kind of Family

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt-fic for lazy-rain-dancer on tumblr. Way longer than the others in the series but hopefully everyone is okay with that. Only took me a year to finish this. I have been wanting to write childhood interactions with Rin and the kings for a long time.
> 
> N - A mystery  
> O - Secrets  
> S - A kiss  
> E - Raw emotion. Passion, **fluff** , angst…

For as long as Rin could remember, Sunny had been her only family. She didn’t remember having parents, but she remembered her older brother always being there.

Rin knew there were a lot of brothers and sisters who hadn’t been born that way. Yet Sunny was always adamant that she was his sister from birth, as if that meant something more. Rin wondered sometimes why they didn’t look alike if they were born siblings.

“We had two parents,” Sunny told her when she asked, “So you look like half and I look like the other half.”

She sometimes wished they weren’t split like that. Then maybe people would look at them and know they were family without Sunny having to say anything.

For her it seemed obvious he was her only older brother. They huddled together when there was danger and ate together when they could find food. Somehow he always knew if she was hurt, even a tiny scrape. When he was hurt he endured her looking after him with a minimum of complaining. He never left her feeling alone. She always knew just how much distance there could be between them before Sunny would come hurrying to find her again.

Every evening he would comb his fingers through her messy hair, usually scolding her that it would get snarled and matted if she didn’t look after it. Rin didn’t mind the fussing. She would hug her knees to her chest, breathing in the smell of night-blooming thistles. Those were the only flowers she ever saw. They were too spiny to pull out and you couldn’t eat them anyway, so people mostly left them alone. They were ugly as a ball of barbed wire, but in the dark they smelled so beautiful.

When Sunny was done, Rin would return the favor. His hair never seemed to tangle, but hung in sleek locks of all different colors. When Rin played with it the strands would wrap around her fingers like they had a mind of their own, and she always came away with a cobweb-y feeling on her hands, like there was something too fine to see still clinging to her. It was a little like the feeling that she was about to step outside of Sunny’s range, like a faint pull at her skin asking her to come back.

Rin knew her brother would never, ever leave her behind. When he stared down two huge men and said, “I’m not going anywhere without my sister,” Rin had no doubt he was right. She just clung to his hand, ready to follow him as she always had.

There actually wasn’t any fuss about Sunny’s demand. Mansam accepted instantly and spent most of the journey home trying to bribe her with sweets until she smiled. Ichiryu was a little more intimidating because it was hard to tell what he was thinking, but Rin was determined to mimic her brother’s confidence. She told herself it could run in the family, and maybe that could be the one thing they both inherited.

After being whisked away, Rin didn’t expect to feel at home in a new place as quickly as she did. It was warm and clean and didn’t smell of burning garbage, which was all nice, but there was some instinct that said the people around her would sooner raise a hand to protect her than to do harm. And even if it hadn’t been safe, she wasn’t there alone.

There were three other boys about Sunny’s age, all Ichiryu’s adopted sons and apprentices, although none of them had brought along siblings. There was no favorite among them. All of them got special treatment on one thing or another. When Ichiryu proudly patted the other boys’ heads or shoulders, he seemed to understand that Sunny was picky about having his hair touched. Only Rin was allowed to play with it.

She knew Sunny’s hair was special long before she figured out how. At first she had only noticed it never seemed to get tangled or dirty or even stay damp after being washed. Rin had to dry her own hair before letting Sunny comb it out. He ruffled it up again when he was done just to tease her, until she made him comb it again.

Rin didn’t care if Sunny’s hair never needed fussing over, or if it made them a little late this morning. She wanted to return the favor. Sunny didn’t like combs, but he didn’t mind her hands.

For a moment Rin left her hands in Sunny’s hair, feeling the strands curl around her fingers.

She extricated one hand and reached up to tug at her own hair. It was fluffy and soft now that she was able to wash it regularly. It didn’t feel thick and heavy like her brother’s hair. It wasn’t colored like his, and she couldn’t make it move like his.

“Which of our parents had hair like yours?”

“I guess it would have to be the one who didn’t have hair like yours.” Sunny reached back and playfully tugged a lock of hair by her ear.

Rin leaned against her brother’s back, draping her arms over his shoulders and resting her cheek against his hair. When she was younger she had just accepted whatever he said, but now when he said things like that she wondered if Sunny remembered their parents at all. “The same parent who had eyes like yours?”

Sunny was silent for what felt like a very long time.

“Were they the same parents? Yours and mine?”

“You’re my sister.” Sunny reached up to clasp her hand and held it tight.

“I know, but. . .” Rin didn’t know how to explain. Their hair and their eyes and the shapes of their faces, none of it matched. “We don’t look alike at all. Is that why you always have to tell people I’m your sister?”

“Yeah. It would be horrible if people didn’t know I’m your brother.”

“But why does it matter if people know?”

“It would matter to some people.” Sunny’s grip on her hand tightened. “I thought someday I would get pulled out of there. I wanted to make sure no one would leave you behind.”

“You knew they were coming?”

“No. I never thought of something like this.”

“Then why would. . . ?” Rin didn’t really need to ask. The answer was pressed against her cheek, hair so thick it felt like the touch of a cool hand. Sunny’s hair stood out like a flower in a trash heap. She knew some people cut off their hair and sold it, but they had to go an awfully long way to find a buyer. Surely no one who had the free time and resources to care would have gone far enough through that shattered city of nothing to see Sunny.

“Why would they leave me behind?” Rin knew the answer to that too. She didn’t stand out. No one would see her shine at a distance. Even if Ichiryu spared time to teach her and Rikky napped while curled protectively around her and Mansam lifted her up on his shoulders and called her his baby girl. . . even if she was accepted here they wouldn’t have adopted her alone, would they?

“Stop that. That’s a disgusting thing to think about.”

“I can’t stop thinking about what I’m thinking about!”

“Then don’t start thinking about it in the first place!”

“You started thinking about it first!” How long had Sunny been thinking this? How long had he thought of her as something that could be left behind? As long as she could remember he had called her his sister, and he had never let her stray too far. How could he never tell her he was afraid someone would deliberately separate them?

“Well I don’t want to think about it anymore!”

Fear and anger pounded through Rin’s head. Sunny had never told her what he was thinking about her. He had _lied_. Rin yanked her hands free and shoved herself away from her brother’s back, away from the feeling of silky hair clinging to her cheek.

“You’re not really my brother!”

“Don’t say ugly things like that!”

“Oh, so now I’m ugly?”

“I didn’t say-”

“I’m so ugly I should have been left behind?”

“Rin!”

Rin bolted out of the room. She didn’t expect her brother to follow her this time, but she still felt hurt when he didn’t.

Outside Ichiryu’s home was lush and beautiful, and so green it still dazzled Rin’s eyes. She loved being able to explore out here, running barefoot over soft grass and soil instead of cracked cement. This time she only ran far enough to hide around the corner of the house, behind the little separate house built just for Rikky. The musky big cat smell kept most other animals away, but it made her feel safe.

She couldn’t stop shaking. She wanted to curl up and hide. She didn’t want to be separated from Sunny and now she had done it herself.

“Rin? Are you all right?”

Rin lifted her head to find the other boys Ichiryu had adopted looking at her. Coco had spoken, and was a step ahead of the other two. Rin had a feeling one of the others had pushed him there.

“She thinks Sunny called her ugly,” Zebra muttered when Rin didn’t answer. She wasn’t surprised he had heard the fight, but he had gotten it wrong.

“She’s pretty,” Coco said. Rin had heard that hesitant tone from him a lot, usually when he was delivering bad news. He seemed even more uncomfortable than usual. Rin knew his sense of sight was superhuman. She wondered if she was pretty in colors that most people couldn’t see.

Toriko had a different take on it. “It doesn’t matter if she’s pretty. She’s our sister.” He took a few steps closer to grin down at her, “Right?”

“She’s Sunny’s sister,” Coco stressed gently.

“We were all adopted together. That means we’re some kind of family.”

‘Some kind of family.’ It didn’t really matter what kind. But she had wished people would look at her and Sunny and just know they were family. She wished Sunny would have never had to worry about it.

She just wished he had told her he was afraid. She wouldn’t have tested his range so many times.

“I s-said something really, really-” The word got wrapped up in a sob and caught in Rin’s throat. She had said the absolute worst thing she could imagine to her brother. Rin pressed her face into her knees. She held her breath, trying to hold the sobs down for a few second, then gave up and bawled her heart out.

She heard all three boys scrambling away when she started crying. If Sunny were here he wouldn’t run away. He would be right next to her, hanging on her arm and telling her to stop. The thought only made her cry harder, because he was the best brother she could imagine and it was her fault he wasn’t here.

When Rin finally lifted her head, rubbing tears away on the back of her hand, she was surprised to find she wasn’t completely alone. Toriko had backed up several steps and was hunched up a little, like he was trying not to spook a wild animal. Coco had retreated to the edge of the house and was watching her, wide-eyed. Zebra had disappeared from sight entirely.

Rin sniffed and took a few deep breaths to clear the left-over sobs clogging her chest. She was done crying about this, she decided. They hadn’t been separated, and they wouldn’t be separated now. The force of her conviction made her tremble a little.

“He didn’t call me ugly. I said an ugly thing.” Rin felt that needed clearing up somehow. She wouldn’t be hurt like this if he was just teasing her about her looks. “I got mad because I was scared.”

Zebra edged back into sight next to Coco. He watched her with a frown of deep mistrust as he took his hands away from his ears. “You’re both liars.”

“Zebra,” Coco hissed.

Rin returned his suspicious glare, but she considered what he said. Zebra had brawled with her brother several times already, and he was blunt to the point of being rude, but she thought he wasn’t the kind of person to lie or be cruel.

“You’re right. I’m going to apologize, and tell him the truth.” Rin stood and then hesitated. “I want to give him something to make up.” If nothing else a present would distract him from being mad long enough that they wouldn’t argue more.

“A snack?” Toriko suggested.

Rin shook her head. This was the first place they had been where there was no shortage of food, they were even allowed to eat between meals, so unless she knew where to find something special she wasn’t sure that would work.

“He likes pretty things.” Things like perfect concentric ripples in a still pond, or a clean, cloudless sky. Rin couldn’t actually bring him those things.

Zebra made a scoffing noise.

Rin remembered the smell of night-blooming thistles. Sunny had always complained that they were so ugly, and warned her away from touching them (as if she would be stupid enough to try), but they had always seemed to sleep near a patch whenever possible, so she was sure he must have liked them too. That scent was the most beautiful and calming thing she could think of.

“What about something that smells pretty?”

Toriko’s forehead was furrowed as if he was having difficulty thinking what smelled good apart from food. Zebra was leaning against the side of the house, listening but no longer engaging with the conversation.

“Flowers,” Rin clarified. It would be a lot harder to bring nice-smelling animals into the house.

“There’s a lot with strong smells that way.” Toriko pointed. Rin was perfectly happy to trust him and follow, up until they got to the ring dug in the ground that marked how far she was allowed to go from the house. (Ichiryu has promised when she was stronger she could go further. Sunny was already able to go two rings out and Rin didn’t know how many more there were past that.) She suddenly realized that the flowers Toriko was smelling could be very far away.

Toriko grabbed her hand and pulled. “Come on. Rikky scent-marked all over here so nothing’s going to come anyway.”

Rin trotted along after him, holding his hand tight. It felt a little different from when her brother led her by the hand, even though he had said they were family.

The flowers were right where Toriko had said. A small spring welled up between the rocks and made its winding way through the coarse grass, creating a lush green streak that fanned out along its full length. Rin could just see the far edge where the green abruptly stopped, and she guessed the water had soaked back into the ground again.

Rin took a handful of water to wash her face and hands and sniffled a few more times, trying to be sure she could smell everything.

Toriko had already wandered some distance away when she looked up. 

“Rin, get him this one!”

Rin went to see the flower that had caught his interest. It was lopsided, looking like several of its thick red and white marbled petals were missing. “It smells like bacon.”

“It _tastes_ like bacon, try it!”

Well, that would explain why half of it was missing. Rin pulled off a petal to taste and found it came away with a thick drop of maple syrup nectar. Toriko was excited as a puppy until she admitted it was delicious, and even shared the rest of the flower with her.

Licking the sticky maple nectar from her fingers, Rin returned to her quest, breathing in the chaotic mix of scents; floral, herbal, sweet, savory. . .

Rin reached for a plant with tight bunches of tiny yellow flowers. It just had a fresh, growing smell, like the green background of any flower bed.

“Don’t touch that one!”

Rin snatched her hand back immediately. She had been so distracted by Toriko, she hadn’t even noticed Coco trailing silently behind them.

Toriko wasn’t started by the older boy’s appearance, so Rin guessed he had been aware of it the whole time. “It doesn’t smell poisonous.”

“Once the sap reacts with sunlight it would leave blisters on your skin.”

Coco reached out and stopped shy of taking her hand. Rin showed him her palm to prove there was no sap on it. She hadn’t even touched the plant.

Now that Coco had intervened it was like the two boys had passed off responsibility for her. Toriko kept ranging farther away to browse while Coco helped her select flowers.

He showed her one cluster of plants with short, thick stalks that when poked would ooze a nasty-smelling liquid. Another plant he steered her far away from because the pollen was so fine and razor-edged it could tear up someone’s lungs. He even seemed a little proud when she figured out without him telling her not to grab one plant that seemed to be covered in soft hairs. She knew those were spines thinner and sharper than needles.

It took a few minutes, but Coco unbent a little from trying to be the serious, responsible one. He showed her one plain flower with wide, white petals and a faint soapy scent, and tried to tell her about the patterns painted on it in ultraviolet.

After some time Toriko came bounding back to them and shoved a white flower in her face, grinning proudly. “Try this, it’s sweet!”

It was a tight bud, barely starting to open, but it was as stiff as if it had been carved instead of grown, with each petal tipped in faint yellow. Rin broke off one of the petals and it melted on her tongue like icing. It tasted just faintly the way lemons smelled, all zest and no sourness.

“It’s good!”

“There’s a whole bunch over here.”

They followed and surveyed the fat shrub covered in white buds. The buds on each branch were all tipped with a slightly different color; reds, pinks, oranges, greens, and yellows. Coco sampled one of the pink ones. The instant he broke it off the branch the soft bud crystalized like sugar. Rin couldn’t say why she felt so reluctant to trade a petal from the flower Toriko had given her when he offered her a taste.

“They’d probably taste better if you let them open first.”

Toriko was bad at waiting for food, even for more or better food. Rin understood the feeling, but if Coco was right she wanted to come back with everyone and try them again. She tugged on his sleeve to make the decision easier. “I need to go back.”

She only had to dig in her heels and pull a little to get Toriko to come with her, and he didn’t even say Coco should just take her back. That felt like victory.

“So what did you get? Can you eat those?”

“Most of them.” Coco had been a very helpful teacher. Rin looked down at the small handful of flowers she had collected and arranged. They looked at little chaotic, but she had something she was happy with. “How does it smell?”

Toriko sniffed it and grinned. “It’s nice. The smells all mix together.”

Rin beamed. It wasn’t quite the smell of night-blooming thistle on a warm summer evening, but with everything together there was something faint and sweet on top, and something deep and rich behind it. It triggered a memory of feeling tired and heavy, while being safe and close to her brother.

“He’ll like it,” Coco told her softly. He edged away a little until Rin told him thank you. Mabe he was just being nice, but Coco sometimes knew things and she didn’t understand how he knew them. She accepted that. It didn’t seem that different from Sunny sensing things he couldn’t see, like when water was safe to drink or if she was hiding some small hurt.

She wondered what the bouquet looked like in ultraviolet.

When they were safely back within sight of the house, Rin gave Toriko a hug, squeezing an undignified noise out of him. She was pretty sure Coco was too shy for hugs, but she squeezed his hand hard and thanked him again, and he gave her just enough of a smile back that she knew he accepted it.

Rin dashed back to the house by herself. She dodged around Rikky napping in the sunshine where she had been crying an hour ago, and darted inside as if someone would really try to hold her back.

Zebra was waiting just inside the door, leaning against the wall and pointedly not looking at her.

“He’s in your room,” Zebra told her. A slight pause and then, “He’s not mad anymore.”

“Thank you.” Rin hesitated, then carefully extricated one of the yellow, cup-shaped flowers from her handful. She spent a moment fiddling with it to make sure it would still smell right, long enough for Zebra to get curious and actually look at her.

Rin held out the flower to him.

“What are you doing?”

“Because you helped me.” Even if it was only a little bit. Toriko had said they were some kind of family, and that made Zebra some kind of family with her too. Even if he was prickly. Well, there were flowers much more prickly than him. Rin wouldn’t tell him that, but it made her smile.

“Coco says you can eat them,” Rin added, when he didn’t move to take the flower.

Coco wasn’t the only one who sometimes knew things. She knew Zebra could hear all kinds of things, but sometimes it seemed like he had heard things that had never been said. Rin was sure he would know she was being honest. She honestly did want to thank him.

The flower disappeared all in one greedy bite, and Zebra grinned at her. Rin had to giggle a little to herself and she hurried on to her room. She had still only seen Zebra smile when he was eating.

Sunny’s hair caught the eye as always, glowing in a sunbeam as he sat at the edge of her bed. She had just enough time to notice that he looked not just dejected but roughed-up before he spotted her and jumped to his feet.

“Rin! Where were you? I searched the whole first perimeter for you!”

“I wanted to. . .” Rin tried to indicate the make-up arrangement. She had thought Sunny would be sulking, not searching for her.

“Where did you get that mess? Did you go outside your perimeter? You could have-”

Rin shoved the flowers directly in Sunny’s face before he could escalate them into a new argument. “Smell!”

Sunny started to say something in retaliation, paused, then took a deeper breath. Rin watched his shoulders slowly relax at the scent. She let him take the flowers from her hands.

“‘S beautiful.”

“I was safe,” Rin promised, before he could start worrying again. “Toriko and Coco went with me.”

“Sure. Leave me with Zebra,” Sunny muttered.

Rin was determined not to smile at that. There was something more important, and she couldn’t let it be covered up by everyday bickering.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said, any of it. You. . . you’re my favorite brother.”

Sunny bent his head slightly towards the colorful mess of flowers and took a deep breath before speaking. “I wasn’t trying to put you down. I don’t want you to ever think that. I’m sorry.”

“I _know_ that, and I don’t _care!_ ”

It didn’t matter if she didn’t stand out from a mile away the way he did. What mattered was being with the people who cared about her up close.

“I was scared! I never thought about if someone would try to separate us, if they didn’t think we were siblings.”

“You shouldn’t have to think about it.” Sunny set the flowers aside very carefully, preserving her arrangement. He reached out and cupped her face, giving her a serious frown that looked out of place on him. “I never wanted you to think about it.”

“You can’t tell me what to think.” Rin didn’t want to fight again, but she couldn’t help it if he was going to be this stupid.

“Well I think we’re old enough and strong enough to hang on to each other, and we’re only going to get older and stronger. So even if you get mad at me and run away to the other end of the world, we’ll find each other again. Even if you’re out of range and I can’t touch you, I won’t lose you.”

Funny, that was what Rin thought when she was so little Sunny hadn’t been able to really explain his sense of touch. Even if she was out of sight, Sunny would always find her. “Really?”

“Of course." Sunny pushed her hair back and kissed the top of her head before adding, "Because you’re my favorite sister.”

Rin smiled at the playful tug on her hair. She was still aware her hair was dark and wispy and would never move on its own, and was perhaps the most striking feature separating her from her brother, but that didn't matter. It shouldn't matter if people knew they were family at a glance. She was sure she knew Sunny well enough to understand what he meant better than anyone else. After all, he had been her brother her whole life.

**Author's Note:**

> At some point I'd kind of like to write Sunny's viewpoint on this. Or possibly have Zebra goad him into saying things. Zebra being a grumpy jerkface who loves his family~


End file.
